<p>No matter how I try, a lot of things about politeness and etiquette just seem like rite to me, so pardon if I seem uncouth for not knowing this. I don’t know if it’s me, but where in real life I tend to do my utmost to thank a person after an inquiry and so forth, I have a less of a tendency to do so by SMS, email, blogging comments, forumming, or what have you.</p>
<p>A related thing I think, is when a huge swath of people post on my wall to wish me happy birthday, and somehow I am not sure whether or not I am obliged to go down the list and thank everyone back.</p>
<p>And to me, where thank you’s always close a conversation in real life, and though I do my utmost to be polite, it requires conscious effort from me. Especially this time of year, when I am e-mailing countless professors concerning their courses, whether they’ll let me in, where I should place, and so forth, I don’t know whether it is expected that I email them back thanks or not, even though I do treasure their information.</p>